Ubisoft’s new chief artistic officer is Igor Manceau, a 20-year veteran of the corporate who most just lately led improvement on Riders Republic, the corporate introduced at this time. Manceau steps into the function over a 12 months after earlier CCO, Serge Hascoët, resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, and at a time when many workers are calling on the Assassin’s Creed writer to shakeup its predominantly French and French-Canadian artistic management crew.
As chief artistic officer, Manceau can be in command of guiding the general artistic imaginative and prescient for each Ubisoft sport. “Manceau will work carefully with stakeholders in all the corporate’s studios to incorporate numerous views and sensibilities that can feed the artistic spirit of the group,” the corporate wrote in a press release today, showing to anticipate criticisms of Manceau’s background and Ubisoft’s ongoing wrestle to make its highest ranks replicate the range typically championed in its video games and advertising.
The function was beforehand crammed by Serge Hascoët, one other decades-long veteran who noticed his tenure on the French writer come to an finish final July whereas it was reckoning with widespread allegations of sexual misconduct. Hascoët was among those accused, in his case of creating sexually specific remarks to and about feminine coworkers, but in addition of fostering a sexist ambiance and of defending different males who engaged in harassment. Unlike different Ubisoft workers who had been accused of misconduct, Hascoët was allowed to resign however was by no means formally investigated.
Hascoët was additionally on the heart of inside disputes over which Ubisoft builders had been promoted to be his lieutenants. In early 2020, the corporate introduced its revised slate of VPs to assist lead its omnipotent Editorial division, liable for serving to the CCO oversee improvement throughout all sport studios. All of them had been white males. After allegations towards a number of the males appointed had been lastly reported publicly, Ubisoft CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot promised to revise its composition. One lady, Bio Jade Adam Granger, was lastly appointed to that function earlier this 12 months, however many workers are nonetheless ready on the extra thorough overhaul that was promised.
“There is not any clear expression of the artistic course of, and there’s a stunning lack of range within the VPs,” a consultant for the A Better Ubisoft worker group wrote in a press release at this time. “We acknowledge the hiring of Bio-Jade Adam Granger, however not a lot progress has been made past that, particularly provided that two further VPs had been meant to be employed. Currently, because it stands, the artistic crew at Ubisoft consists of white people who find themselves of uniform cultural backgrounds.”
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A Better Ubisoft sent an open letter to company management final month calling for basic reforms throughout the online game business when it got here to office protections for reporting sexual misconduct, poisonous managers, and different points.
The letter got here after a number of reviews earlier this 12 months for present and former Ubisoft workers feeling that the corporate has finished little to basically change within the face of final 12 months’s reckoning. Activision Blizzard faces an analogous backlash from workers over a California lawsuit alleging widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at that firm. So far, neither firm has formally acknowledged the staff’ calls for for additional motion.
